Best Intentions

On facebook, yesterday afternoon, I posted that I had gotten paint on my brand new jeans, despite better intentions. Toni liked it, and I was glad because she's one that I could count on to get all that the statement stood for.

Alex has just about given up on me, her sense of style propriety insulted too many times by my lack of same. She was about two and a half years old when I took her shopping for a nice summer party dress. Standing in the aisle with a light blue and pink striped searsucker slipped over her t-shirt and tights, she suddenly twirled around on her toes to see its skirt fly out. I didn't teach her that, and you gotta know, I wouldn't have. But there it was, undeniable. Alex was more girly than I, and she cared about clothes. Much older now, the distressing in her jeans leaves me a little distressed, but she assures me it's cool, and she wouldn't dream of sewing any of it. She has such confidence in this assessment, and it shows in her overall stance which is such that she could wear anything and look good.

Distressed Jeans Economy:
The Right Brand at Upper Crust Store: starting on sale at $30, and going up to $100 and some of them have had paint applied to them already, For Effect.
At upper crust thrift store Plato's Closet: about $20, many with tattering that identifies them in the upper echelons of tattered styling, and which earns them special placement in the store, front and center.
At my favorite thrift store Red White and Blue: about $7

Which leaves me grateful that the boys are still just fine with RWB jeans, which look brand new in just the right distressed way, and where the $10 still-with-tags Ralph Lauren's hang right next to the $4 Levi's.

The truth is, I didn't actually get paint on my jeans. Because they were brand new, the result of a gift card spending spree, rather dark blue, and markedly untattered, I was very, very careful while wielding a paint brush at the wall. I imagined my daughter's sigh.

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